I was thinking that in order to increase wet time on the flour... got to make some experiments first. Gotta figure out where to start. Thoughts using sprouted flours, non-gluten flours, flour mixes, and nut flours.

In that same link, page 198 on Gas production is also interesting about the bubbles. Thinking about the bubbles in melted, slushy snow... Even a non-carbonated slushy drink made from crushed ice hold zillions of bubbles. These bubbles coated in flour.

also a simple cornbread recipe. (bacon and toasted onion in the iron pan please! and into a hot oven!) (Going off to check out the girl scout manual online. I bet he had my old one!)

Interesting idea of having the dough mix prepared and frozen waiting for the snow. A cold bowl. (SS would chill fast.) I might try making a good sized batch of starter and drying it. Pulverize to powder for mixing with snow. Another idea might be to scald some rye (reduce amylase) chill and mix with snow. I might go with the knackerbrot (flat loaf) idea first. Then raise my sights.

Na ya, dirt in the snow... and bubbles in the bread. Notice that melted snow seemed to improve the rise? Very tiny bubbles attracting the CO2 from the yeasts. Ever notice how a just rinsed sparkling wine glass shows more bubbles than a clean dry one?

but I have a recipe for snow in cake, and of course there is snow ice cream, a staple of my childhood.

Snow Ice cream is made using evaporated milk (or real heavy cream would work) you dish the snow into a bowl, add the cream and a drop of vanilla and mix until its a sort of half frozen mushy mess, then give it to a kid and watch their faces light up! Its good, we used to make it at least once a week when I was a kid, and everyone got a dish with the spoon, and filled it up for ourselves, mom added the cream or canned milk (usually the canned milk) and a drop of vanilla and you sat down and stirred until it was right and ate it! So good, sort of between soft serve and hard icecream, and definitely vanilla flavoured.

It makes a single layer in an 8 by 8 pan and is a thick plain white cake, or that's how it turned out for me, it was tasty, wasn't a huge raiser but it was a good cake. It probably would have been much better if I was better at making cakes.

But I think sometimes I came close in Michigan's Upper Peninsula with the lake flurries that drop about 8" at night. That was the cleanest fluffiest big crystal snow I ever saw. The stuff dreams are made of.

So now I'm wondering about recipes. Dry mix and add moisture through snow? Or make a batter and fold in snow like whipped egg whites (which btw in Austria is called "snow," interesting huh?) I'm not sure I'll add the baking powder.

I want to see what the snow does. I got ideas and open to more. I might even "rub in" the fats. (Looks like I'll get plenty of crumbs for my crumb depot.) Seems to me that with the availability of tap water, the idea of using snow seems far fetched, lost or forgotten. But if in a place with snow and no running water, melting snow would be the norm, a daily task and skipping a melting step would seem more likely. The chances of baking/cooking with snow would be greater. Or would it?

I keep thinking about throwing ice in the oven for steam. Been following the latest steamy ice cube topic and adding up the energy loss, baking requires a lot of energy and baking with ice more so. Baking with ice in the dough may require even more. The ice has to first melt and heat up and then turn to steam. So from an economic point of view, baking with ice falls out of use as soon as another leavening is available, one that requires less heat or lower heat. Melting ice to water and using yeast would save on fuel and time.

I think it a great survival skill. How does it work? I think I will start with pancakes and progress toward bread and cake.

We had a foot dump and the snowblower quit before it was all done, the other one won't start without being warmed up (its too cold to go do this) and its snowing again!

-12C this morning, its supposed to get up to -1C by Weds and then drop off again! ARG!!! I really and truly hate winter, cold isn't so bad, but that four letter word snow is horrid, and wind is a close second! Put all three in the same sentence and someone's mouth should be washed out!

With wind? That's just the angels making sure their blessing gets to you.

I guess I'm a confessed snow bunny. Had snow as a little kid, then in the 3rd grade, moved to S.C. and dreamed about snow. Not thrilled with ice storms, although the ice can be beautiful. Then I was in the South Pacific 2 yrs. until my senior year of HS in upper Michigan, snow country! As a third grader, 3 feet of snow was about the same as my imagination as an adult. As I grew, so did my dreams of deep snow. In the U.P. everyone kept asking me if I'd had enough and, "no, it could be more," was my reply. I really was sad to see it melt. Had my very own pair of snowshoes. Still found traces in the woods by my birthday in May. So much snow does make for a short growing season in the garden. Here, the deep snow is not far away, all I have to do is go up in elevation, way up. I'm already thinking out ideas of transporting snow in my cooler or styrofoam boxes.

last year we got over 21 inches in one three day period, and forget going anywhere with or without snowshoes.
Angels don't kiss you with arctic blasts that scour the skin off, and drop the temps to -90F with wind chill.
We can get well over 6 feet of snow here in bad years, I have a picture of my husband, standing on the piles the caterpillar tractors dug off the road and piled up, they were close to 25 feet tall, as they almost touched the telephone wires, they were around his ankles, and he was about 10.
We usually don't get so much snow, but last year was a La Nina, they say and apparently so is this year, when we have the El nino years we get warm winters with not so much snow, and lots of Chinooks (warm westerly winds that can bring the temps up to +40 F from -40 F in under an hour) but the darn female years we get snow and more snow and cold and wind and I really, really, really HATE WINTER!

How exciting right? However... enough to just dust the ground. Woke up to it. What's that called... a skiff of snow? Here they call it (in some remote locations) mouse knee deep. Too many leaves and organic matter to work up a loaf. I know... excuses!

I was thinking of first taking about 40g of room temp. flour (each ap wheat, bread flour, rye, spelt; the 4 flours I have on hand, yours may differ) placing each into a small bowl; that makes 8 bowls -- half of them control bowls. Heat up a frying pan and then start mixing. I'd thought I'd aim at 100% hydration mixing in 40g of snow into each one at a time and then frying a pancake in a lightly greased pan. Each pancake would be examined for weight, height, tenderness, photo of surface and crumb. Control (gotta have 'em) would be mixing the same flours using ice water instead of snow. Evaluate, compare and go from there.

First make a round of 4 pancakes with each flour and 40g ice water, observe, take notes on temps (room, water, dough, pan) batter consistency, any bubbles, anything else that pops into mind. Pour batter into middle of pan and allow batter to spread itself flat. Do not tip pan or shake or make notes if you do. Fry (note type of pan) and allow to cool on rack. Notice anything about turning, sticking or flipping. Label and set aside.

To measure the weight of snow, first put a bowl outside with a scraper to chill. Tape a small sheet of insulating material (styro-foam or cardboard) onto the scale. Have scales inside the door or on garden table. Once 40 g of snow is collected, it should be scraped into one of the bowls of flour and folded with flour to coat the flakes. Observe mixture. Then rushed inside to the waiting hot pan. Pancake is made, observed while frying and left to cool on a rack. Next sample.

(As I am not quite sure what will happen during the mixing, I am hoping that the flour & stir friction will warm some of the crystals creating some kind of batter that will soon trap the air trapped in the snow flakes. I predict it will get foamy. Would like to know how much time will lapse between adding snow and having some kind of batter to pour into the pan. I think 100% hydration would be enough to avoid clumps of dry flour in the dough/batter.)

Will try this out for you as soon as it snows again, we have had a chinook and warm weather for the last week or more along with other things to interfere with trying out things. And we have no snow other than crystalized icy stuff! Not what you want for snow mixing.

One clarification, are you suggesting just using snow without any leavening. or adding the leavening agent (baking powder usually in my house) to the dishes of flour. I don't know how well it will work without the levening, as it should make steam and fluff up the cakes. Will try it with the control flours with baking powder and the snow flours without and a second set with, see if there is any difference in adding snow to already leavend flour.

That's the point of the experimentation. Isn't it exciting? OK, maybe a little exciting? I'm eager to see what will happen. What kind of tool snow can be.

Naturally a future step might add leavening but the whole point is that the steam released with heating up the snow should raise the dough. Baking powder would interfere with results. The results first need to be evaluated. I haven't even touched the surface of flavoring which might include roasted flours, non-gluten flour, powdered sourdough starter, salt, etc. Also before going there, I might consider adding part of the moisture in form of water & snow. A lot depends on how the snow mixes with the flour and the result. (unless I'm way off base!) Need to collect some basics here. Keep lookin' for snow! Thanks! I appreciate help with this.

it seems like the weather is not going to be snowy for awhile yet, which I'm thankful for on one hand, but can't wait to try the snow dough pancakes on the other,but I think we need nice fresh loose snow to get the best results. LOL

We have cold and snow... -6°C (21°F) slow is falling Chilling the flour too. And there is enough on the garden brick wall to top the scales off. I wonder how much snow is needed to make 40g...

As I'm not keen on tasteless bread... I did add a little salt and some active malt to the dry ingredients. Tempted to use my vinegar mister on the rye dough to get some kind of adhesion. Waiting for the oven to pre-heat before I head outside. Taking pictures might be tricky. Let's see what happens...

Stirring snow and flour together stays powdery

Now stirring inside until it clumps, warm hands on a sticky dough with ice crunches inside. Barely shaped, Popped into the hot 230°C oven. After 22 minutes, it was not done (80g dough), lightly beginning to brown on the bottom and pale on top.

Mixed up another batch using kitchen temp flour, snow (40g each) in ice cold metal bowl. Same crumbly dough, brought inside to warm up. Put a small pile of crumbs on one side of the greased fry-pan form and played with the bowl of crumbs until they clumped. This time, floured my fingers and made a ball of the remaining dough, could also feel how cold it was, warmed it a little more and placed it in the pan along with half of the first doughy experiment to bake at 230°C. So the pan has 1) a pile of crumbs, 2) a dough ball and 3) half a dough ball partially baked.

By the way, the dough from the first bake tastes rather yucky, like an uncooked noodle. (gosh, not even an egg for flavour!)

After 10 minutes, I reached into the oven with tongs, removed the 1) "crumb" pile, they were smelling done and brown around the thin edges. Interesting! took a photo and now Dolly is here looking to sample my new cracker! What did you say about doggie biscuits, DB? Taste is better with the browning. Thicker center is a little chewy. I see potential here.

Also thinking about dried starters as flour to mix with the snow. Also upping the malt flour and adding crumbs, either bread or nut flour... As crumbs the dough can be sprinkled out on parchment cookie sheet and if done outside, lots of time to make it as thin or thick as desired. (unless the wind is blowing) Bring inside to melt a little bit binding together and then bake. Did two cookie sheets with thick and thin layers of snow dough crumbs: 80g flour & 80g snow, came out lacy and light a 50/50 rye. It broke or crumbled too easily. Not enough glue. ...yet

The little balls of dough didn't rise, didn't flatten out or get good colour. Baked one for almost an hour and it baked through with an open crumb but the crust is hockey puck material. Taste is extremely bland.

Now, where was I? Got new snow and the last day of the year. Sounds promising.

The plan: New approach... and to make things interesting, lets kill half the yeast. :)

Toast 7g instant yeast in a dry hot fry pan. Should only take a minute and there is enough yeast to test for activity or lack thereof before use. Jar and label. (I toasted for one minute, on medium heat, until it started smoking, not browning, poured the hot yeast powder into a coffee cup to probe measure temperature. Came out at 170°F or 76°C hot enough I think, overkill. Proving in warm water to make sure it's dead... smells very good this toasted yeast!!!

Take one basic recipe (one loaf with 2% salt) mix dry ingredients without the yeast, split it equally.

Add to half the recipe ice cold tap water, mix to wet flour, cover.

Add to the other half, equal weight in snow, mix to distribute well, cover.

Let both doughs stand at room temp 23°C until they both read the same temp.

Split again, now having four equal samples. (two made with Snow, two made with Tap water)

Add live instant Yeast to two samples: YS) one made with snow and

YT) one made with tap water.

Add Dead yeast to the other two samples: DS) one made with snow and

DT) one made with tap water. Knead all four samples equally (set a timer) and keep careful track of them.

Do you know what dead roasted instant yeast does when you put it into warm water?

Absolutely nothing, not even dissolving, just lies there on the bottom of my glass ...except to smell fantastic! I'm not dumping this water. Going to use it as my cooking water for spinach. Tastes very much like roasted flour. not gritty either. :)

but interesting so far. Not what I expected. The dough with the yeast and tap water is lengths ahead of the other three. I would have thought the yeast and snow would have come out like the other yeasted one.

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